Jordan and Snickers UK Twitter stunt – a PR success or #Fail?

As celebrities fearlessly spout forth from the digital roundtable of life, it is expected that amongst the publicity-vetted blandness of the regular tweet, there will be on occasion, a 140 character gem.

If you are one of @MissKatiePrice’s, aka Jordan’s, 1.5m followers, this will no doubt have been the case on Sunday. I don’t believe I was alone in dropping my cup of tea as @MissKatiePrice informed me that “Large scale quantitative easing in 2012 could distort liquidity of Govt. bond market. #justsaying.” The economic aphorisms and astute comments continued throughout the day, making for an altogether rather refreshing break from the usual inane musings on horse-riding, celebrity big brother, sugar, spice and all things nice (…or pink!).

By the time Jordan had commented on the Chinese GDP I think most people had presumed some sort of twitter-jacking or account hacking had occurred – but who knew it was actually a PR stunt by Mars owned chocolate bar, Snickers.

@MissKatiePrice then tweeted the following:

“You’re not you when you’re hungry @SnickersUK #hungry #spon http://lockerz.com/s/176796815”

So far, big brands only seem to be pouring investments into promoted tweets to generate ‘buzz,’ so I for one found the whole thing quite refreshing and imaginative. Clearly, based on the consequent reverberations across the social web, the success of the stunt on the whole (which apparently also includes @AmirKingKhan, @BeefyBotham, @RioFerdy5 and @Cherlloyd) is still up for debate, if not already deemed a #fail.

According to most interpretations, the stunt suggests that not only does a Snickers bar restore you to normality; it also relieves you of serious, worthwhile opinions, inducing somewhat more vacuous cultural observations – i.e. underwear and celebs. It's also worth noting that fellow celebrity tweeter @Cherlloyd had her fans 'Snickers in a twist' by tweeting her discovery of Russian Literature but was post Snicker consumption, restored to her regular 'swagger jagger' like antics ...

Yes, @SnickersUK have now become the bête noir for many a disapproving tweeter – the brand insulted Katie Price’s intelligence (hmmmm) and further insinuated that eating a Snickers bar makes you unintelligent and inane (a bit harsh, @MissKatiePrice does have 1.5m followers who quite enjoy her regular micro-blogging activity and as far as I see it, she is quite commercially savvy in her own right).

I say kudos to Miss Price for her good humour in all of this and well done to Snickers UK for getting everyone talking – including a piece in The Sun. The message may be up for debate but I have a sneaky feeling Snickers UK don’t mind that at all. But, what do you think?

What Price Fame?

So, was it all just a sham? Or has five years conducting their relationship under the scorching rays of the media spotlight finally taken its toll? Yes, I’m talking about the recent announcement that Katie Price, AKA page three stunna Jordan, is finally calling time on her marriage to Peter Andre – he of the waxed chest, washboard abs and questionable musical ability.

In the post-match analysis, no doubt every man and his dog will be speculating as to the real reason behind the perma-tanned pair’s parting of ways. But regardless of the conclusion you come to, one fact is undeniable – they understood how to work the media like no other celebrity couple out there. Forget Posh & Becks and their tasteful (read cringeworthy) fashion shoots and increasingly desperate attempts to get us to take them seriously, Katie and Peter courted the media unashamedly from Day One – and they got it down to a fine art. What’s more, their warts-and- all, comi-tragic approach to celebrity has made them an outrageous amount of money in a very short space of time.

Which is why their request that the media “respect their families’ privacy at this difficult time” is a little hard to swallow. Surely the Price family’s privacy was irreparably compromised the moment they chose to invite an entire tv crew into their home to document their every cross word and happy moment? For a couple whose fortune has been amassed almost entirely through selling the mundane minutiae of their private lives to an eager public – be it through the pages of Hello or via their eponymous tv series – they are being uncharacteristically tight-lipped.

Katie, Peter, a word to the wise: don’t bite the hand that feeds you. You owe your very existence to the media machine and the fans that have followed your every move since that first fumble in the jungle – so be careful what you wish for. It might just come true.